Republic of Mining

Is Ring reality or myth: next 100 days will tell – by Stefan Huzan (Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal – November 8, 2015)

November 23, 2015

Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal is the daily newspaper of Northwestern Ontario.

I believe the next 100 days will demonstrate if there is to be a new economic reality in Northern Ontario because Justin Trudeau, the new prime minister of Canada, has appointed Patty Hajdu, Thunder Bay-Superior North, to the federal cabinet.

After all, the biggest promise of the Liberal election campaign was multi-billion dollar investments for growth.

And, it is important to note that Ontario Liberal premier Kathleen Wynne had also won majority support of voters in 2014, to a large extent on the basis of similar promises of multi-billion dollar investment into infrastructure.

[Sudbury Neutrino Observatory] Art McDonald on how to win a Nobel Prize – by Kate Lunau (MACLEAN’S Magazine – November 21, 2015)

November 23, 2015

http://www.macleans.ca/

All it takes is one mine, 1,000 tonnes of heavy water, 274 scientists and the backing of an entire town

Arthur McDonald, tall, bespectacled and silver-haired, is hiking down the rocky tunnel of a nickel mine outside Sudbury, Ont., after descending more than two kilometres underground in a mine cage. The space is lit mainly by the roving headlamps worn by his small group. Roof bolts and steel screens brace the rock overhead.

The terrain is uneven, and it’s easy to stumble. McDonald, 72, takes slow, considered steps, occasionally turning to warn the others of a treacherous puddle or ditch. Fatigue is a common side effect of time spent this deep underground, where the air pressure is much higher than above ground, but he doesn’t seem to feel it.

Why 2015 will go down as a year to forget for North American coal miners – by Peter Koven (National Post – November 21, 2015)

November 23, 2015

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper.

Plenty of coal industry insiders have spoken out about the collapse of the business in the United States. But nobody does it with quite the same fervor as Robert Murray.

“We have the worst president the United States has ever had in its history,” said the founder and chief executive of Ohio-based Murray Energy Corp., one of the largest coal producers in the U.S.

“He has stacked the government with hundreds of thousands of bureaucrats who are on a regulatory rampage (against coal) that are carrying out the desires of those who got him elected,” Murray said in an interview.

Guest Commentary: Nuclear power critical to climate fight – by Stephen Antony (Denver Post – November 21, 2015)

November 23, 2015

http://www.denverpost.com/

Stephen Antony is president and CEO of Energy Fuels, a Lakewood-based integrated uranium mining company.

Nuclear power has the potential to emerge globally in the coming years. It’s incontrovertible: Honest efforts to fight climate change and air pollution will absolutely depend on nuclear energy. Moreover, achieving real energy independence will depend on nuclear energy. That makes these two goals very much intertwined.

The U.S. has greatly benefited from a shale revolution that has yielded billions of barrels of oil and gas. This has brought enormous economic benefits to America and made our nation less dependent on foreign sources of energy.

However, there is another key consideration: taking greater responsibility in providing cleaner energy to the world.

Hopes fade for 100 miners missing after landslide near Myanmar jade mine – by Aung Hla Tun (Reuters U.S. – Novmeber 23, 2015)

November 23, 2015

http://www.reuters.com/

YANGON – Hopes faded on Monday that any of an estimated 100 people missing would be found alive after a landslide in northern Myanmar buried an encampment near a jade mine, and officials said it was still unclear how many people were living in the area.

Rescue workers had recovered 113 bodies when the search was suspended on Monday evening, Khin Kyaw, a local police officer, told Reuters. Two of the bodies recovered were women, he said.

Heavy equipment has been brought in to assist the digging in Hpakant, the site of the landslide in a mountainous area in the northern Kachin State that produces some of the world’s highest-quality jade.

Natural resources prices ‘may fall again’ – by Neil Hume and David Sheppard (Financial Times – November 19, 2015)

November 23, 2015

http://www.ft.com/

Natural resources prices have not bottomed and could fall further unless demand improves or more supply is curtailed, according to Goldman Sachs, one of the most influential banks in commodity markets.

With raw materials from oil, copper, coal and zinc trading around their lowest levels since the financial crisis, some investors said that prices might have troughed and could recover in the next 12 months.

Production cuts from miners such as Glencore, which plans to reduce annual production of zinc by a third, have given further grounds for optimism.

Memories from the University of Inco – by Stan Sudol

November 23, 2015

I am an Inco brat. I was born and raised in the shadows of those tall industrial smokestacks that tower over the city of Sudbury, Canada. In the days when I turned 18 in the late 1970s, if you didn’t go to university, then it was almost a rite of passage to work for “Mother Inco,” as it was affectionately (or derisively) known.

For most students today, the prospects of a good-paying summer job to help finance post-secondary education has become an elusive dream. Skyrocketing tuition fees combined with minimum-wage work equals enormous debt at graduation.

I truly feel sorry for these students, as my own experiences in the decade of disco included a wonderful combination of affordable tuition fees and blue-collar union employment that made a major contribution to my post-secondary education costs.

The Next Resource Shortage? – by David S. Abraham (New York Times – November 20, 2015)

November 20, 2015

http://www.nytimes.com/

WHEN world leaders gather in Paris later this month to forge an agreement on climate change, they will discuss ways to use less fossil fuel, expand energy-efficient technologies and reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Yet even as our leaders are pushing us to use fewer resources, their vision will force us to use more.

Though energy from the sun and wind appears boundless, the resources needed to turn it into power are not. And as we move away from oil, gas and coal, there is increasing demand for the rare metals that are at the heart of green technology. In the process, we are trading one resource dependency for another, and unleashing a new set of economic and environmental ramifications.

These rare metals — a group of roughly 50 that includes indium, rare earths and gallium — are produced in small quantities, often several thousands of tons annually or less;

Glencore’s cuts come back to bite zinc bears – by Andy Home (Reuters U.S. – November 20, 2015)

November 20, 2015

http://www.reuters.com/

Nov 20 The London zinc price touched a fresh six-year low of $1,497.50 per tonne on Thursday.

Last month’s flurry of excitement after Glencore’s announcement of 500,000 tonnes of mine cuts had, it seemed, completely dissipated.

But those cuts were carefully calibrated to get maximum impact out of the supply chain and the tremors are starting to be felt, judging by this morning’s announcement of major production cuts by Chinese zinc smelters.

First Nations, province co-operating in mining – by Martin Cash (Winnipeg Free Press – November 19, 2015)

November 20, 2015

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/

EFFORTS by the province and some Manitoba First Nations to work together in the mining industry are beginning to bear fruit.

Two years ago, the province established a mining council made up of representatives of First Nations, industry and government officials.

The goal was to help smooth what had been a rocky relationship between the provincial mining branch and exploration and development companies and the First Nations whose resource lands were being affected by mineral exploration and development.

Lucara shares surge on discovery of 1,111-carat diamond – by Ian McGugan (Globe and Mail – November 20, 2015)

November 20, 2015

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

Lucara Diamond Corp.’s stock soared by as much as 37 per cent after the Vancouver miner said it had unearthed the biggest diamond to be found in more than a century.

The 1,111-carat, gem-quality stone is slightly smaller than a tennis ball. It was dug out of Lucara’s Karowe mine in Botswana.

The diamond, the second-largest in history, is one of several giant finds that the company has recently uncovered. Lucara, part of the mining and energy group headed by Lukas Lundin, also reported it had found an 813-carat stone that ranks as the sixth-largest ever discovered.

Agnico Eagle is the world’s most-resilient gold miner – by Danielle Bochove (Bloomberg/Globe and Mail – November 20, 2015)

November 20, 2015

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd. is emerging as the winner in the race to shield profit from slumping gold prices. Since gold began a more than 40-per-cent plunge from a 2011 peak, the miner’s gross margins have narrowed by just 1.9 per cent thanks to expansions and a strengthening U.S. dollar.

For every dollar of gold Agnico Eagle sold last quarter, 49 cents (U.S.) was gross profit, little changed from four years ago when gold touched $1,900. That’s the best performance among 15 major producers tracked by Bloomberg, whose margins compressed by an average 64 percent.

Brazil dam collapse reignites debate over storing mining waste – by James Regan and Susan Taylor (Reuters U.S. – November 18, 2015)

November 20, 2015

http://www.reuters.com/

SYDNEY/TORONTO, Nov 19 A deadly mud slide at an iron ore mine in Brazil has reignited calls for safer ways to dispose of millions of tonnes of ore waste held back by man-made dams.

The disaster at the Samarco iron ore mine is only the latest in a series involving tailings – waste in mining parlance – that have devastated the environment, and in the case of Samarco, killed at least 11 people and left another 12 missing.

Tailings are typically a mud-like material and their storage and handling has become a major safety and environmental issue, since they can be toxic and may need to be kept isolated.

Has China peaked? – by Michael Auslin (National Post – November 20, 2015)

November 20, 2015

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper.

The annual Halifax International Security Forum will convene on Nov. 20, bringing together some of the finest military and strategic thinkers in the Western world for a three-day conference. In the run-up to the event, the National Post is presenting four essays that describe the challenges, and opportunities, facing the West today.

At a dinner at the Halifax International Security Forum in 2013, a table of experts and interested participants, including former Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd, had a spirited discussion on an unconventional theme: “Peaking China.”

Even two years ago, the idea that China would not be forever rising was a fringe concept.

Marxipedia, your tax dollars at work – by Peter Foster (National Post – November 20, 2015)

November 20, 2015

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper.

When Joe Oliver was Natural Resources Minister in the Harper government, he identified “foreign-funded radicals” as obstructions to Canadian resource development. He was pilloried for speaking the truth. Imagine if any government-funded organization had given out millions of dollars to study those sources of foreign funds?

There would have been political and academic outrage, cries of “witch hunt” and “muzzling.” Well, the muzzle is now off, and foreign-funded radicals have nothing to fear.

They are seated at the right hand of power, radical funding has been repatriated, and the anti-corporate witch hunt can begin in earnest right here in Canada with local funding.